Monday, November 7, 2011

Bike Walk Tennessee

Bike Walk Tennessee, a statewide organization of bicycle and pedestrian advocates held its annual board meeting in Memphis this past weekend. While the meeting was not open to the public there was a meet & greet session which I attended and which was rather informative. You might think that we have enough issues to deal with in Memphis so why should we care about the rest of the state? Think of it like the wheel of a bicycle: you and I are the rim; we're touching the ground, seeing everything that is happening and translating our desires to those who have taken it upon themselves to head up local organizations like Outdoor Chattanooga and Livable Memphis, or the spokes. They then pool their efforts at the hub, or Bike Walk Tennessee, to get bills introduced into laws that say we don't have to sit around at red lights waiting for them to change if there are no cars coming. Or the new "Due Care Law" which jumps the penalty of hitting a cyclist from a Class C misdemeanor to a Class A misdemeanor, or $50 to $500, and up to a year in jail for killing a cyclist. The author of that bill? Memphis's own Mark Hicks:

The new law took effect on July 1st of 2011, so the guy from this video who was so worried about his truck will see a stiffer penalty.

After the meet & greet we took a ride to show some off some of the Memphis facilities: the crossing light at the Greenline and Highland, our rebel bike lanes on Broad, our real bike lanes on North Parkway, the Harahan Bridge (and a quick beer at Martyr's Park) and the repaved Madison Avenue to finish up with more beer at Bosco's where Dr. Spaceman sat next to us. Here's our route, it stops at Martyr's because my phone battery was like weahhhh: